1,000 feet above an underground oil field

Did you know that you are standing a thousand feet above a large underground oil field? This oil seeps to the surface as sticky asphalt. Plants and unwary animals have been getting trapped in this treacherous goo for tens of thousands of years. Being stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits was a terrible way to die - but a great way to preserve fossils.

Come inside to see a tar pit up close

Finding fossils in asphalt takes hard work, and we have to dig below the surface to locate them. This is one of more than a hundred pits that we dug looking for fossils in this park. Come inside to see how fossils of an extinct mastodon, Harlan's ground sloth, and saber-toothed cat look when they are first discovered by scientists!

The observation pit opened in 1952 and was the park's first museum.

fossil = remains of an animal or plant preserved by natural causes. In the Tar Pits, the fossils are preserved by asphalt.

asphalt = a sticky substance that seeps to the surface from an underground oil field. . This historical marker is in Miracle Mile in Los Angeles in Los Angeles County California